1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates, generally, to apparatus for reminding people to take pills or other forms of medicine on a periodic basis, and specifically, to a pill reminding apparatus which is also used on a periodic basis for some purpose not necessarily related to the taking of the medicine.
2. Description of the Background
Many devices have been developed in this art for reminding people, for example elderly people, to take one or more pills on a periodic basis. Typical of this art is that illustrated and described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,911,856 to Charles C. Ewing which uses a rotary device to dispense the pills upon some predetermined cycle.
Another dispenser known in this art is that illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 2,377,120 to H. L. Apfelbaum which prevents more than one pill being dispensed at a time.
As yet another example of an apparatus known in this art is that illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,535,903 to Roberto D. Franchi which relates to a pill dispenser having a child proof top.
It is also known in a nonanalogous art to provide an apparatus which encloses a plurality of tooth brushes and which allows a selected one of such tooth brushes to automatically come out of the apparatus upon activation of a lever. Examples of such apparatus are found in U.S. Pat. No. 2,401,058 to W. E. Dunleavy and U.S. Pat. No. 2,564,472 to M. R. Farnham. Such examples have no relationship to reminders for taking medicine or the like.
The prior art dealing with the dispensing of pills, as is for example shown in the first above noted patents, assumes that the person taking the pill remembers to take the pill in the first instance. The Applicants have discovered that by combining a pill dispenser and an apparatus used on a periodic basis for an altogether different purpose, the person is reminded to take the pill.
It is therefore the primary object of the present invention to provide an apparatus which provides a reminder to a person to take a pill.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide a pill reminder apparatus for use by a person taking a pill, wherein the apparatus is also used for an entirely different purpose on a periodic basis, unrelated to the taking of the pill.